Single Conduit Hanger

[Anonymous]

I need to create a hanger for a single conduit similar to the link below. How can I do this? Does anyone already have a part similar to this modeled I could use?

http://www.topele.com/sale-1057331-custom-electro-galvanized-steel-standard-conduit-hangers-bolt-and...

[Tom_Eitelbach]

The Hanger in the link was for 2" So I hope that was the size you needed. This one is for EMT, it is a bit oversized so it won't come up during clash check. 

If you need another part size, I started with a closed polyline, and then extruded it into a solid. I blocked it and ran it through content builder to make it a MV Part.

Enjoy.

[Anonymous]

Hey t.eitelbach, this is exactly what I'm looking for, but it's the wrong size. Can you elaborate on how I can create this hanger myself?

"I started with a closed polyline, and then extruded it into a solid. I blocked it and ran it through content builder to make it a MV Part."

If you could walk me through this step by step, I would really appreciate it. I have no idea what content builder or an MV Part is.. I could really use an explanation meant for a total beginner (assume I know nothing). I'm using AutoCAD MEP 2012 if that makes a difference.

This would really be a huge help, thanks.

[Keith.Brown]

First you need to be aware that there are three types of content that can be created.  What is shared in the post above is called a Single Instance piece of equipment.  i.e., it only lives in the current drawing.  The other two types are block based equipment and parametric based equipment.  Ideally you should always strive to build parametric based equipment, then if that is difficult then block based equipment and finally single instance equipment.

Here is a link to an Autodesk University class that talks about creating content.

http://au.autodesk.com/au-online/classes-on-demand/class-catalog/2011/autocad-mep/autocad-mep-conten...

There used to be a more in depth version but Autodesk has removed it when they purged old classes

You can find more information at this link.

Finally just typing in CONTENT BUILDER in the help file will get you all of the information that you need.

[Keith.Brown]

Just as a follow up note.  Content is king in AutoCAD MEP or any other modeling software such as Revit.  Without the content that you need you will sink using the program really fast.  I would suggest becoming very intimate with the content builder interface.  There is no reason once you have the submittal and dimensions in hand that you cannot crank out a usable part within a maximum of 20 minutes depending on the complexity of the part.  That part should live in your catalogs so you can use it over and over again.  While it is possible and easy to reuse the Single Instance parts it is not the desirable method and should be avoided most of the time.  The extra time it takes to createinstance part is that once created you cann a catalog based part vs a single instance part is extemely small ( 2-3 minutes at most).  And one major downside of using the single instance part is that you cannot modify it at all.  You will need to start over from scratch if you need to make changes.

[Keith.Brown]

Finally i offer you an alternative to using mvpart based hangers.  In the drawing shared above there was a mvpart hanger with a structural member as the rod.  In the drawing that I am sharing i converted the mvpart to be a structural member so that the rod and the hanger are one item.  Just type column add and then select the 2in Conduit Hanger as your style and place the hanger on your pipe and then drag the rod to your final elevation.  This is a little bit quicker than placing the mvpart, then placing the structural member for the rod, and then anchoring them together. 

If anyone is interested in learning how to do this to other hangers i will be more than happy to share my techniques.

[Tom_Eitelbach]

The hanger was built with content builder and not MVPARTCONVERT So I don't think it is a single instance part. I did have a problem with content builder in the final step. It would not validate (or whatever it was saying) the part because it said I was missing a file. I found the file it was looking for in a previous release and added it to 2014 and it seemed to work. I probably have to do a repair because it was missing the whole folder.

I would like to see how you converted it to a structural member. I thought about trying to build it that way in the beginning but I thought it would stretch down the length of the pipe, so I did it as a mvpart. The one you built does not seem to do that which is good. 

[Keith.Brown]

My fault on the type of mvpart.  Since you shared the dwg file that the part was inserted into i assumed that it was a single instance part.  If you had shared the catalog dwg, bmp, and xml file I would have seen that it was indeed a catalog part.

I will put together a real small quick video that demonstrates the building of the structural hanger.   Its alot easier than it looks.

[Keith.Brown]

Here is the video.  I just uploaded it so it might take a few minutes to finish processing before it is actually viewable.

p.s. you will need to watch it full screen as it is a 1080p resolution video.

[Anonymous]

Hey guys, thanks a lot for the feedback, this is super helpful. I'm going to watch these videos and read up on the content builder. I'm sure I will be back in about a day or two after I'm done reviewing this material with some questions. Thanks again. 

[Tom_Eitelbach]

Thanks for the video Keith

I know I did that once before but could not remember where to go to do it again. I think I saw something similar to that for making custom door styles

Thanks again